In the previous Examiner article, some responses were published that were given to Ms. Karaleigh Roe, the President of the Parent-Teacher Association at Sunnydale Elementary School in Lancaster, CA. Despite the fact that many children have been repeatedly sickened by toxic mold in the school, it’s been like pulling teeth with a piece of cotton candy to get any adequate action taken by the school board and Public Health officials. Why they simply won’t listen or even admit there is a problem is beyond any reasonable explanation.

Here, then, is yet another excerpt, given by Ms. Roe, which is so unbelievably ridiculous it’s nearly laughable:

"We know that if you EAT alot of mold, you can get alot of health problems, no question about it. And that's where, if mold is toxic, it's when you eat it. Now normally, we dont find people going over to the wall, and when they see mold and start licking mold off the wall.

Yes, it has happened here or there, but in general we don't see that problem."

later on:

"Just because you find it growing on a wall, doesn't mean that your going to have necessarily extra health consequences. Unless you have a pre-existing illness."

"Again "toxic mold", I put that in quotation marks all the time, because toxic mold doesn't really exist.All molds are the same."

.... "as far as your run of the mill student that is running around the school, no, we're not concerned of those kinds of issues because this is just a contact exposure that we worry about as far as the mold on the wall is concerned."

"mold is one of those issues where there is so, so much misinformation out there in the world regarding mold, so we want to make sure that people understand the proper scientific interpretations of mold and what it means when you see it, what it means in terms of potential threats to human health, uh, etc.

So that's our primary goal from the science perspective, so make sure that that's well understood. And we've seen, in the past we've seen countless, countless media reports that really botch the issue about toxic mold and what it means and where it comes from and what our interpretations are, and they usually, unfortunately get alot of their information from court cases that go on. And as we all know once these things hit court cases, science gets swept under the rug. And that's a big pet peeve of mine. So my goal is to make sure that we just adhere to strict scientific principals, that's my goal, that'll be my goal in terms of making sure that you get the right education you needed about this as well."

"There could be mold covering all the walls in here, and still we would get all the same symptoms ... coughs .. irritations, those kinds of things that would result from if there was a little bit of mold in the room. So when we are talking about the actual levels of mold it's not so much about the levels, it's more about how you're getting exposed to it. If you're going over to the wall, licking the mold off the wall and eating it that's a different story and there are a whole bunch of situations , uh, bad things that can happen to you if that were to occur.

But uh, that route of exposure, I'm pretty much presuming is not going on here. We're really just talking about inhaling the mold and mold byproducts. "

There was actually far more information from Ms. Roe’s communication with the inspectors but unfortunately, there is not enough space available here to include this. Let it suffice to state, though, that if the matter were not so deleterious to the students’ wellbeing, it would seem like the inspectors’ remarks are downright ludicrous. Perhaps they can afford to shrug the contamination off so lightly, since they are not forced to occupy the building daily themselves. It’s also highly unlikely they have any children attending Sunnydale, or they might be actually concerned themselves. Being removed from the situation on a personal level, of course, they can distance themselves from giving a rodent’s posterior.

This fight is not over yet, far from it. It may take time, it will certainly take ongoing supreme efforts from the PTA and others with children’s health at stake. Be assured, though, just as the mold will continue growing through paint trying to cover it up, the battle to overcome both the health dangers at this school and those denying their existence will not go away.

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Vickie has certificates as a Holistic Health Consultant, Clinical Nutrition Counselor, and Herbal Medicine Counselor. She sees great potential in LA for promotion of these fields. She is also a member of the Dinshah Health Society. Vickie can be reached at: vljackson@hotmail.com.